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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

In the wake of the Ham vs Nye debate it is apparent many do not know how science is conducted and the reasoning methods employed. Ham was trying to show that when reasoning the past (historical science) uses abductive reasoning.
Can Science Disprove God's Existence? from Magis Center In this brief videocast, Karlo Broussard, apologist and speaker for The Magis Center of Reason and Faith, dispels the popular myth that science has proven that God does not exist.

Absolutely fantastic talk. Over 100,000 hits over at UncommonDescent.

… I will tell you as a scientist and a synthetic chemist: if anybody should be able to understand evolution, it is me, because I make molecules for a living, and I don’t just buy a kit, and mix this and mix this, and get that. I mean, ab initio,
I make molecules. I understand how hard it is to make molecules. I
understand that if I take Nature’s tool kit, it could be much easier,
because all the tools are already there, and I just mix it in the
proportions, and I do it under these conditions, but ab initio is very, very hard.I don’t understand evolution, and I will confess that to you.
Is that OK, for me to say, “I don’t understand this”? Is that all
right? I know that there’s a lot of people out there that don’t
understand anything about organic synthesis, but they understand
evolution. I understand a lot about making molecules; I don’t understand evolution. And you would just say that, wow, I must be really unusual.Let me tell you what goes on in the back rooms of science – with National Academy members, with Nobel Prize winners.
I have sat with them, and when I get them alone, not in public –
because it’s a scary thing, if you say what I just said – I say, “Do you
understand all of this, where all of this came from, and how this
happens?” Every time that I have sat with people who are synthetic chemists, who understand this, they go “Uh-uh. Nope.”
These people are just so far off, on how to believe this stuff came
together. I’ve sat with National Academy members, with Nobel Prize
winners. Sometimes I will say, “Do you understand this?”And if they’re
afraid to say “Yes,” they say nothing. They just stare at me, because
they can’t sincerely do it.
I was once brought in by the Dean of the Department, many years ago,
and he was a chemist. He was kind of concerned about some things. I
said, “Let me ask you something. You’re a chemist. Do you understand
this? How do you get DNA without a cell membrane? And how do you get a
cell membrane without a DNA? And how does all this come together from
this piece of jelly?” We have no idea, we have no idea. I said, “Isn’t
it interesting that you, the Dean of science, and I, the chemistry
professor, can talk about this quietly in your office, but we can’t go
out there and talk about this?”
If you understand evolution, I am fine with that. I’m not going to
try to change you – not at all. In fact, I wish I had the understanding
that you have.
But about seven or eight years ago I posted on my Web site that I
don’t understand. And I said, “I will buy lunch for anyone that will sit
with me and explain to me evolution, and I won’t argue with you until I don’t understand something
– I will ask you to clarify. But you can’t wave by and say, “This
enzyme does that.” You’ve got to get down in the details of where
molecules are built, for me. Nobody has come forward.
The Atheist Society contacted me. They said that they will buy
the lunch, and they challenged the Atheist Society, “Go down to Houston
and have lunch with this guy, and talk to him.” Nobody has come! Now remember, because I’m just going to ask, when I stop understanding what you’re talking about, I will ask. So I sincerely want to know. I would like to believe it. But I just can’t.
Now, I understand microevolution, I really do. We do this all the time
in the lab. I understand this. But when you have speciation changes,
when you have organs changing, when you have to have concerted lines of
evolution, all happening in the same place and time – not just one line –
concerted lines, all at the same place, all in the same environment … this is very hard to fathom.
I was in Israel not too long ago, talking with a bio-engineer, and
[he was] describing to me the ear, and he was studying the different
changes in the modulus of the ear, and I said, “How does this come
about?” And he says, “Oh, Jim, you know, we all believe in evolution, but we have no idea how it happened.”
Now there’s a good Jewish professor for you. I mean, that’s what it is.
So that’s where I am. Have I answered the question? (52:00 to 56:44)